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| ANSI Z136 | |
|---|---|
| Name | ANSI Z136 |
| Type | Standard |
| Publisher | American National Standards Institute |
| First published | 1967 |
| Latest revision | 2022 |
| Discipline | Laser safety |
| Related | Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, International Electrotechnical Commission |
ANSI Z136
ANSI Z136 is a suite of American National Standards for the safe use of lasers and laser systems. It provides guidance on hazard evaluation, administrative controls, engineering controls, personnel training, and protective equipment for facilities and operations that use lasers. The suite is developed by consensus under the auspices of the American National Standards Institute and is widely cited by regulatory bodies, professional societies, and academic institutions.
ANSI Z136 addresses laser safety across clinical, industrial, research, and commercial settings. It is referenced by Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health guidance and is used by organizations such as American Medical Association, American College of Surgeons, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Federal Aviation Administration when assessing laser hazards. The guidance harmonizes with international work by International Electrotechnical Commission, International Organization for Standardization, and European Committee for Standardization while reflecting U.S. statutory frameworks like the Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations where applicable. Major stakeholders include academic centers such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, and industry leaders like General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and Intel Corporation that operate laser laboratories and manufacturing lines.
The purpose of the ANSI Z136 suite is to reduce laser-related injury risk to skin, eye, and indirect hazards such as ignition or chemical exposure. It defines hazard classes, exposure limits, and controls for environments ranging from medical suites at Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic to manufacturing floors at Tesla, Inc. and Texas Instruments. The standards aim to assist safety officers, institutional review boards at institutions like Harvard University and University of California, San Francisco, occupational health programs at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and industrial safety committees at General Motors and Boeing. By setting consensus practices, the suite complements regulatory actions by agencies such as Food and Drug Administration and Department of Transportation.
The ANSI Z136 suite is organized into multiple parts tailored to applications and user communities. Key subdocuments include sections addressing medical lasers used in environments like MD Anderson Cancer Center and Royal Marsden Hospital, industrial guidance referenced by Siemens and ABB Group, research laboratory practices followed at Caltech and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and educational program criteria for institutions such as Georgia Institute of Technology. Each subdocument adopts harmonized terminology consistent with American National Standards Institute procedures and may cross-reference standards from American Society for Testing and Materials, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and National Fire Protection Association for allied topics such as electrical safety and fire protection.
Technical content specifies maximum permissible exposure, hazard classification, engineering controls (beam enclosures, interlocks), administrative controls (laser safety officer duties, access controls), and personal protective equipment (wavelength-specific eyewear). It provides measurement methods using instruments traceable to standards from National Institute of Standards and Technology and links to calibration laboratories at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Guidance includes requirements for signage, barrier design in facilities like Cleveland Clinic operating rooms, and fail-safe interlocks used in industrial devices by Honeywell. The document references wavelength bands, beam characteristics, and thermal effects as considered in research at National Institutes of Health and material-processing programs at Carnegie Mellon University.
ANSI Z136 itself is a voluntary consensus standard; enforcement typically occurs when incorporated by reference into procurement specifications, institutional policy, accreditation processes, or regulatory frameworks. Healthcare accrediting bodies such as The Joint Commission and industrial certification programs at Underwriters Laboratories may require conformity. Employers and institutions often designate a Laser Safety Officer and establish Laser Safety Committees analogous to practices at Johns Hopkins Hospital and CERN to implement the standard. Noncompliance may lead to incident investigations involving agencies such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration or litigation in federal courts like the United States Court of Appeals.
Development began in the 1960s amid expanding military, industrial, and medical uses of lasers by entities including Bell Labs and Raytheon. Early revisions responded to discoveries about retinal photochemical injury documented in studies at National Eye Institute and evolving laser technology in corporations like IBM and RCA. Over decades, working groups composed of representatives from universities, industry, and government laboratories—such as Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory—updated criteria for ultrafast lasers, fiber lasers, and high-power systems. The consensus process engages stakeholders from professional societies including American Academy of Ophthalmology, American College of Radiology, and Optical Society of America.
Implementation examples include laser safety programs at manufacturing sites of Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Corporation, clinical laser departments at Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and research laboratories at University of Oxford and Imperial College London. Institutions adopt training curricula, incident reporting procedures, and engineering controls consistent with the suite when deploying systems from vendors like Coherent, Inc. and IPG Photonics. Research programs in ultrafast spectroscopy and quantum information at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and NIST integrate ANSI Z136 principles into experimental design, procurement, and personnel qualification to manage risk and ensure safe operation.
Category:Standards